Regenerative breaking on MMM

[Pdelcast]

Originally Posted by johnrobholmes

Using a MMM on the generator side would be a horrible idea IMO, the efficiency is not there for generator use.

Now why would you say that? The efficiency is pretty good actually, it's just not optimized for generation.... but neither is a 3 phase bridge rectifier either. Above about 35% braking the motor starts dissipating a bit of power as the phase currents get really high -- and that causes a loss of efficiency.

The main difference is that a bridge won't ever BOOST the voltage for the battery -- if the battery voltage is lower than the motor EMF voltage, the bridge won't do a thing. An active boost brake (like on the Monster) will boost the voltage higher to charge the battery.

Patrick